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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Zeno Charles-Marcel

Love and the New Reality

It's a privilege for me to be here at Advent Hope once again.

1 of the nice things that I like about Advent Hope, whether I am visiting and sitting in the pews or conversing with people is that we have a certain amount of permission, if you will, to be frank.

So do I have your permission this morning to speak frankly with you?

So It's okay if I make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, right?

I'm glad because I have 2 questions for you.

The first question is how many liars do we have in the group?

Think carefully about how you're going to answer.

Second question, have you made the serious decision to give your life to Jesus Christ?

Charles Dickens says that it was the best of times and the worst of times.

Things on the 1 hand seem so advanced and for some people it's so hopeful because of the science and the technology and the advances that human beings have been able to make.

At the same time, we've had more confusion and more problems than ever before.

The irony of it in health and medicine and like sciences and arts is that this is the best time in Earth's history to be sick.

We can do so much, but yet, how we decide where we put our emphasis, what we do in response What we do in response to the call of God, well, we are bombarded.

Our adversary, the devil, is on the prowl.

He looks at you and me and he's thinking lunch.

By God's grace we will not let him do that.

So this morning I pray that the Holy Spirit will be with us.

Loving Heavenly Father, I pray that that promise that you've made that when 2 or 3 are gathered in your name that you are in our midst will be true this morning.

That you will hide me behind your truth, that you will use my mouth, but more importantly Your Holy Spirit will work in the hearts and minds of everyone, including myself, that we might hear Your voice.

I pray that Your Word will not return to you void this morning, that everyone in the hearing of my voice would be so touched by your spirit that we will not be the same again.

This, Lord, is our prayer, in Jesus' name, amen.

There's a poet from the early 1900s, Ella Wheeler.

She penned a very nice, it's fairly long, but I remember 1 part of that poem.

And I'd like to say it for your consideration, all right?

Listen to the words and see if you can identify something here that's useful for you.

She says, this is only a part of the poem by the way, she says, 1 ship sails east and another west with the self same winds that blow.

It's not the gale but the set of the sail that tells which way you'll go.

I have found that poem to be instructive to me because in my journey, my journey, my walk with God, my time as a young man that was called by God and ignored all the calls, as most of us probably have been called and have ignored.

But there comes a time when we hear by God's grace.

The situation in life is such that We're now able to listen and we're now able to hear.

And not only are we called, we are called out.

So Jesus and The Bible writers describe the called out ones, Ekklesia, the church, the called out ones.

As believers, the called out ones, We celebrate what God has done, what He's doing, and what He has yet promised to do for us, in us, through us, in this world and in the world to come through His Son, Jesus Christ.

He has acted through His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, and has adopted me and has adopted you into his family, his other sons and daughters.

He has plans for us, for us to have a bright and glorious future with Him.

The historical account of this special man whom when he was alive no 1 called Jesus because that was the Greek transliteration of his name.

But that man, the Messiah, or Jesus Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His coronation, His lordship.

This is a reality that oftentimes we overlook.

But as a believer, as a called out 1, I participate and you participate too as called out ones in the events as part of our own lives because Our history, our story is wrapped up in his story.

Through Christ, God has created a new reality, and We have been invited to be subjects in the kingdom of God.

Here on this earth, we assemble and we respond to his call, And we, according to the biblical account in Ephesians, are neither Jews nor Greeks, or as the lady was saying, not Jews nor Arabs.

We all have equal claim to be part of the family of God.

And as a result, God invites us to come boldly before His throne of grace, to come before Him as children going before a loving father.

The emphasis I would like to place is on loving father.

It's not everyone who has had the blessing of having a loving father.

I can say all of us have had a father, right?

We don't believe in the stocks and things like that, right?

So everybody here has had a father, but everybody may not have had a loving father.

We may not understand what love is, even though we talk about love all the time.

This lover, this giver, called God and Father, has given us a new reality, the reality of his kingdom on earth.

And if we participate the way he calls us out to participate, heaven begins here.

Because to know him and to know his son is life eternal.

It's not about knowing about him alone, but knowing him and knowing his love and participating in that love, not just as a receiver, but as also a reflector of that love.

In this reality, I have 4 questions that I'd like to be able to deal with this morning.

What does it mean to be part of the called out ones, the Ekklesia?

What is or are the distinguishing mark or marks of those who are called out?

I don't think you'll be surprised that the Bible has an answer to that as well.

And in this world of confusion and this extended battle between good and evil, can we be sure that we are on the right side, the side that wins in the end?

You'd be surprised, you may be surprised, I shouldn't say you will be, you may be surprised at how God answers that question.

Before we get any further, I'd like to make a disclaimer for those of you who may not be aware, because I'm told that we have visitors in our midst.

You may not be aware that the language of heaven is love.

You may not be aware that The currency of heavenly transactions is love.

And along with love are its manifestations.

Words like grace and mercy and compassion.

These are all wrapped up in the love of God.

Justice and truth and righteousness, part of this grand scheme of love.

But it also involves humility and courage to stand for the right Though the heavens fall.

I would like you to turn in your Bibles, please, to Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3.

I had intended to ask people to read, but it probably wouldn't be in the best interest of time to do this.

But we might ask ourselves, how are we supposed to relate to 1 another if we're in this love relationship?

Well, in Philippians 2 verse 3, We read, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

To esteem 1 another as better than ourselves?

We're not born that way because we're born in sin and shaped in iniquity.

Love and the New Reality

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